moe.moe.moe.

I started off my West Coast vacation with a bang... 3 nights of moe. in Seattle, Portland, and Boise. All three shows were top notch but the Boise show takes the cake. It was one of the best shows I've ever seen. 

Seattle was great. I took the bus from the airport to the venue(The Showbox) and met up with some friends I hadn't seen for a while. I dropped my stuff off at the hotel and got back to the venue just in time for the show. I was able to bring in my real camera, it was my first time using it for a moe. show. After the show, I got a chance to meet moe.'s new lighting designer, Jason Huffer, and let him know how great of a job he is doing(as you can see from the photos). I hope he'll be with moe. for a long time. You can see all of my photos from moe. in Seattle here... 

http://picasaweb.google.com/MilesESW/20090602MoeShowboxSeattleWA

Before leaving for Portland, I had breakfast at Pike's Market which is on the Seattle waterfront. There are loads of flowers and local artists selling their photographs, glass, drawings, hats, belts, etc. I'd like to go back again some day when I have more time to browse. 

I got to Portland in time to have dinner with my cousins Sierra, Hallie, Joey, and Kate. I forget the name of the restaurant we went to but it was delicious. We all shared our meals... alligator jambalaya, frog legs, catfish, and gourmet mac and cheese! Sierra came to the moe. show with me and we had a blast. It was her second time seeing them and I was glad to get her into the front row(or "on the rail" as us moe.rons call it). We danced our butts off! The Crystal Ballroom is an amazing venue. 

Erin(my sister) let me borrow her car and I drove to Boise with my friend Andrea. The drive from Portland to Boise was absolutely stunning. It is definitely on my top 10 most beautiful drives list. It took a little over 6 hours. We stopped at Multnomah Falls for a quick view, then made pretty good time. The first couple hours of the trip were along the Columbia River Gorge. Then we got to the Blue Mountains and Wallowa Mountains which were breathtaking. There was a couple miles of farmland on each side of the highway and then the mountains just shot up into the sky. The peaks were all snow covered. I wanted to stop to take pictures but we didn't have time. There were tons of wild horses and cows on both sides of the highway and the clouds were just gorgeous. We hit some serious thunder and lightning storms but nothing that slowed us down too much. Our friends Kevin and Carolyn made the drive as well. They left an hour or so before us but got a flat tire so we ended up passing them(we felt like jerks for passing them but help was on the way and they told us to keep going. We were running a little late) Just after we passed Kevin and Carolyn, the tow truck fixed their tire and they got back on the road... only to be stopped again by golf ball sized hail! They had to stop under an overpass and wait it out. Andrea and I must have missed the hail storm by 10 minutes! Anyway, we all got to the show just before moe. came on. The venue was called the Knitting Factory. It was well worth the drive. What a show! It was the 5-year anniversary of my first show and Al(one of moe.'s guitar players) gave me a shout out which was pretty cool. The next day I dropped Andrea off at the airport and drove back to Portland. Unfortunately, clouds were blocking the snow-capped mountains so I missed my chance to photograph them. I did get a few shots at a scenic view and along the Columbia River Gorge. I will post them soon. 

Today was Hazle's(my second-cousin-once-removed) first birthday party. It was great to see some more of my Oregonian family. Lots of cake and ice cream and bubble blowing with the kids! 

Alright... off to visit Erin at her bar, the Marathon Taverna, and get a beer. Cheers!